SQLite UNION clause/operator is used to combine the results of two or more SELECT statements without returning any duplicate rows.
To use UNION, each SELECT must have the same number of columns selected, the same number of column expressions, the same data type, and have them in the same order, but they do not have to be of the same length.
Syntax
Following is the basic syntax of UNION.
SELECT column1 [, column2 ] FROM table1 [, table2 ] [WHERE condition] UNION SELECT column1 [, column2 ] FROM table1 [, table2 ] [WHERE condition]
Here the given condition could be any given expression based on your requirement.
Example
Consider the following two tables, (a) COMPANY table as follows −
sqlite> select * from COMPANY; ID NAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY ---------- -------------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 1 Paul 32 California 20000.0 2 Allen 25 Texas 15000.0 3 Teddy 23 Norway 20000.0 4 Mark 25 Rich-Mond 65000.0 5 David 27 Texas 85000.0 6 Kim 22 South-Hall 45000.0 7 James 24 Houston 10000.0
(b) Another table is DEPARTMENT as follows −
ID DEPT EMP_ID ---------- -------------------- ---------- 1 IT Billing 1 2 Engineering 2 3 Finance 7 4 Engineering 3 5 Finance 4 6 Engineering 5 7 Finance 6
Now let us join these two tables using SELECT statement along with UNION clause as follows −
sqlite> SELECT EMP_ID, NAME, DEPT FROM COMPANY INNER JOIN DEPARTMENT
ON COMPANY.ID = DEPARTMENT.EMP_ID
UNION
SELECT EMP_ID, NAME, DEPT FROM COMPANY LEFT OUTER JOIN DEPARTMENT
ON COMPANY.ID = DEPARTMENT.EMP_ID;
This will produce the following result.
EMP_ID NAME DEPT ---------- -------------------- ---------- 1 Paul IT Billing 2 Allen Engineering 3 Teddy Engineering 4 Mark Finance 5 David Engineering 6 Kim Finance 7 James Finance
The UNION ALL Clause
The UNION ALL operator is used to combine the results of two SELECT statements including duplicate rows.
The same rules that apply to UNION apply to the UNION ALL operator as well.
Syntax
Following is the basic syntax of UNION ALL.
SELECT column1 [, column2 ] FROM table1 [, table2 ] [WHERE condition] UNION ALL SELECT column1 [, column2 ] FROM table1 [, table2 ] [WHERE condition]
Here the given condition could be any given expression based on your requirement.
Example
Now, let us join the above-mentioned two tables in our SELECT statement as follows −
sqlite> SELECT EMP_ID, NAME, DEPT FROM COMPANY INNER JOIN DEPARTMENT
ON COMPANY.ID = DEPARTMENT.EMP_ID
UNION ALL
SELECT EMP_ID, NAME, DEPT FROM COMPANY LEFT OUTER JOIN DEPARTMENT
ON COMPANY.ID = DEPARTMENT.EMP_ID;
This will produce the following result.
EMP_ID NAME DEPT ---------- -------------------- ---------- 1 Paul IT Billing 2 Allen Engineering 3 Teddy Engineering 4 Mark Finance 5 David Engineering 6 Kim Finance 7 James Finance 1 Paul IT Billing 2 Allen Engineering 3 Teddy Engineering 4 Mark Finance 5 David Engineering 6 Kim Finance 7 James Finance